Joo “Zest” Sung-wook’s never-ending farewell tour continues on Thursday when he enters the semi-finals of 2022 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 1, following two close calls against Kim “Classic” Doh-woo (3-2) and Lee “Bunny” Jae-seon (3-2).

For the past few months, Zest’s matches hinged on what version of Zest shows up – going from reaching the finals of IEM Katowice 2021 to getting eliminated from Code-A. Although Zest has been stabilising in recent weeks, it’s fair to feel scared for him for this match.

Cho “Maru” Seong-ju, who has historically struggled against Protoss, has improved his TvP matchup numbers to an impressive 82.14% win rate across the last 28 outings (23-5). However, Maru wasn’t convincing on Monday and had to dig deep to defeat Kim “herO” Joon-ho (3-2).

So while Maru has looked much better this tournament and should win, we have to take a shot with Zest to keep it close and force another five-map series.

Park “Dark” Ryung-woo proved just how efficient he is in Zerg vs Terran matchups on Monday when he swept Byun “ByuN” Hyun-woo and improved his ZvT record to a 75% win rate (48-16). Now, he’s set to clash with a Protoss player in Park “Zoun” Han-sol, for the first time since December, when Dark won 3-1.

It marked Dark’s fourth consecutive win against the 24-year-old, and according to the latest StarCraft II betting odds, the current no.4 in the Korean ESL Pro Tour standings should add another win to his tally. Priced at $1.23, Dark’s implied probability of winning this match is at 81.3%, which seems a bit low, but it’s a fair figure.

Zoun has looked good across the first two tournament rounds, but he’s terrible against Terran (10-15). So even though Zoun has been consistently a clutch player in important games, he is a clear outsider to defeat Dark on Thursday.

IntoTheAlphaX Trovo Rumble #2

Kang “Solar” Min Soo and Jang “Creator” Hyun Woo will clash on Wednesday for the 20th time in 2020 and the first time since December 14, when Solar swept Creator 2-0 during the ESL Open Cup #49 Korea. It marked Solar’s third consecutive head-to-head victory over Creator and his 14th of the year, so it makes sense for Esport bookmakers to favour him over Creator for this bout.

Predicting another clean sweep win for Solar might seem a bit too optimistic since those are fairly rare at this level of play, however, due to Creator’s poor form it’s difficult to imagine any other outcome. He has lost all but three of his last 10 outings and enters this match with a three-game losing streak.

Despite Solar’s underwhelming 2-4 record, he has managed two clean sweeps against Max “MaxPax” C. and Kim “Ryung” Dong Won prior to this bout and if that is any indication of his form, he should secure another commanding win over his compatriot.

BYUN vs ZOUN SCII BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

Byun “ByuN” Hyun Woo enters this match off a strong showing at the New Year Community Cup, where he made it to the grand finals, only to lose (1-3) against Cho “Trap” Sung Ho. He later also lost (2-3) against Park “Armani” Jin Hyuk in the first round of ITaX Trovo Series #5.

Park “Zoun” Han-sol has managed a few solid results this month, however, he consistently struggles when faced with top-tier Korean StarCraft II esports pros. Since the start of December, Zoun won only 10 games in 24 outings and is 1-4 in his last five.

Zoun has only one game on record in the last 10 days and even that was a 0-3 loss against Lee “INnoVation” Shin Hyung. What’s more, ByuN is 5-1 up in the head-to-head with Zoun this year, which includes five consecutive wins and back-to-back clean sweeps (2-0, 5-0). The choice is obvious.

Esports Multi Bet Of The Day – Wednesday, December 30 2020